


The Obsidian Key

by Eisren (rephic)



Category: Fairy Tail
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-24
Updated: 2014-08-24
Packaged: 2018-02-14 12:03:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2191113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rephic/pseuds/Eisren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A routine mission turns tragic very quickly, and is referred to as Fairy Tail's saddest day. a year later, the guild is still trying to forget that awful day, but what happens when Gray and Wendy come back from a job with a mysterious Obsidian Celestial Key?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Obsidian Key

They were going to eradicate a dark guild. The illegal guild Dripping Fang had been abducting girls from a nearby village and returning them bloodied and battered, the whole team shuddered at the thought of what the girls went through in the clutches of the dark mages.

So that's how he entirety of Team Natsu ended up at the small village of Zephyr with the mission to wipe out the evil wizards and collect their generous reward. What the mages didn't know is that today would go down in Fairy Tail's mission log as the saddest day in the history of the guild.

As the train screeched to a halt, the moaning and groaning opposite Gray ceased, and the pink-haired boy omitting these pitiful sounds jumped up and ran out of the nearly empty car. When the rest of the group joined him he was sporting a much healthier skin tone, no longer the miserable shade of green that made the Ice-Make mage keel over in laughter whenever he saw him in such a state.

Even remembering it made the raven try his hardest not to let loose a string of giggles. Who knows what the pyromaniac would do if he made fun of him while he wasn't incapable of doing anything but being hopeless. It would probably end with a toasted Gray.

He shuddered at the thought.

The group made their way to the village's one hotel, and Erza announced that they would be leaving in an hour to go destroy Dripping Fang. With a sigh, Gray slumped down on his narrow bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.

Natsu made a promise to himself to ask Wendy about the pain he was feeling. Hell, at this point, he would even ask _Porlyusica_! And that old woman was scary. The pain had started a few months ago, a dull ache in his abdomen that had started at the level of a phantom itch, or the ache of an old scar. But now, it felt as if a knife was being twisted around in his organs. He wasn't sure how much more he could take before his pain became obvious on his face. And three hour train ride definitely hadn't helped. The pinkette was pretty sure Lucy and Erza had noticed he was more miserable than normal. The ice stripper was too busy laughing at his misery to notice anything out of the ordinary.

He grit his teeth as a new wave of pain washed over him, becoming slightly more intense than it was before. _Okay,_ he thought, _as soon as this job is taken care of, I'll say something to Erza, she usually knows what to do in these situations._ Nodding in aggrement to his own promise he opened his eyes. Only seeing concerned-looking Lucy looming above him.

"You were making pained noises. Are you alright?"

She was scared for him. And it only made him feel worse. "I'm fine, that train ride~" he said sheepishly. She didn't look like she believed him but dropped the subject,

"You're lying. You better tell me what's wrong when we get back," she paused. "Erza sent me to get you; it's time to go." and she walked out of the room, and down to the street where the she-demon was waiting. For him. He gulped and quickly scrambled out of his bed and ran downstairs. He was not going to give her an excuse to hit him. He was in enough pain as it was.

The two girls and the cat were waiting patiently for the two boys to exit the hotel. Shortly after Natsu came outside. Gray did also, and the quintet made their way to the outskirts of the village, where Dripping Fang was over.

When they arrived, the mages all grinned at each other and assumed battle stances. Then they attacked.

The battle ended quickly enough, Gray and Lucy were taking out the grunts of the guild, around 50 or so, Erza was attacking the guild's two S-Class mages, and Natsu was battling the guild master.

The master was a man about 50, with graying hair and an evil glint in his eye. He used some type of wind magic, though he was nowhere near as strong as Erigor had been, and Natsu had no trouble defeating him, only obtaining a few minor cuts and bruises. Soon enough, he was making his way back into the main room of the guild hall, to see Lucy dismissing Loke and Taurus, and Gray deconstructing a few ice creations. Erza joined them within seconds.

"Well," Lucy said as the four of them walked outside. "That was simple."

They all laughed and Happy soon joined them, coming down from his position looking out for any reinforcements Fang could have called. There evidently weren't any. They made their way back to Zephyr. and Natsu had finally allowed himself to wince at the sharp pain in his gut, hoping that his companions would dismiss to his new injuries. He should have known he wouldn't be that lucky.

"Okay, fire-brain, what's wrong?" the dark haired man asked while giving him a slightly worried glance, it wasn't like his friend to submit to his injuries like that. He had once walked around with two broken ribs for a week before Happy dragged him to Wendy; no one even knew he'd been hurt.

"Hmm?" said mage asked, "What are you talking about?"

"You're in serious pain," Erza said, a glint in her eye, "now admit to it"

He sighed, hesitant to tell, "Yeah, for like two months, its gotten worse."

"Two months?!" they all exclaimed, eyes wide as saucers, the redhead punched him in the head with a gauntleted fist, "Why didn't you tell us sooner?!"

"I was gonna ask Wendy when we got home," he mumbled, but no one seemed to hear.

"How bad is it?" Lucy asked, and Natsu pondered a bit.

He turned to Erza, a look in his eye of amusement, before he winced again, "Remember when you stabbed me?" Their eyes once again grew wide.

"You almost died" she exclaimed, "Baka! What's wrong with you?!"

He laughed, ignoring the glares, but suddenly his laughing turned into coughing. The four looked at him worriedly, and after about a minute he stopped, but stayed in his crouched position staring at something.

"Natsu?" the Exceed hesitantly asked, walking up to his best friend, only to freeze as he saw Natsu's hand. It was covered in blood. The cat looked up, blood dripped out of the Dragon Slayers mouth and onto his half-closed palm. "NATSU!" the blue cat yelled, snapping said boy out of his reverie. He stood up, wiping his hand across his mouth, and his hand against his jacket, but not before the group saw the flash of red on the mage's fist.

"Natsu," Erza started, a bit of fear in her voice, "What just happened-"

"GET DOWN!" the pinkette launched himself at the trio as an arrow wizzed over their heads. That arrow would have hit an unsuspecting Erza between the eyes. The four of them hit the ground hard. Then immediately got up, standing back to back, Natsu's injury momentarily forgotten. "Fang's reinforcements. We were stupid to think they wouldn't come."

Grunts of agreement were heard, and they armed themselves for the oncoming attack. Then they charged. 15 minutes later, the reinforcements were on the ground, obviously not suspecting the power of the mages. The usual post-battle banter was happening, Natsu and Gray arguing over who took out the most enemies, Erza threatening them, and Happy taunting Lucy about one of the boys in the guild. Adamant that she "Liiikkkkkkkeeeedd him~~~"

Lucy noticed one voice falling silent, and turned back to see the pinkette a few paces behind where he had been arguing with his 'rival'. But something was wrong. A dark shape protruded from his gut and his blood dripped down to the ground. Standing behind him was a half-conscious Fang mage, a grin on his face.

Lucy screamed.

The dark wizard fell unconscious shortly after Lucy screamed, but the damage was done. The Shadow-Blade pierce straight through Natsu's abdomen, and he fell to his knees, unable to stay standing. Gray was the first to him, hastily unbuttoning the pyromaniac's vest and ripping up his own shirt to use as bandages.

Erza was second, she propped up Natsu's head and helped lift him slightly off the ground as Gray wrapped the torn shirt around his stomach. The light green fabric quickly turned dark. Lucy and Happy seemed unable to move. Seeing that the bandages weren't helping in the slightest, Gray quickly tore them off and sealed the wound with ice. The bleeding stopped, but Natsu's face was unnaturally pale.

Lucy finally found herself able to move and plopped down next to Natsu, watching Gray try to keep the ice from melting. She looked at the wound. And nearly screamed again. A four inch gash disfigured the left side of his stomach, and a six inch gash went through the right side of his back. The dirt under her knees was warm with quickly chilling blood, she took her best friend's hand and flinched at how cold it was. _He's not supposed to be cold,_ she thought, _He's Natsu. He's warm._

Said boys eyes were struggling to stay open as Erza yelled at him to stay awake, to stay awake and "not let a little scratch like this best you!" Her words were defied by the tears streaming down her face. The blonde looked at Gray and saw that he has streams of water running down, despite his concentrated expression. Now that she thought of it, her face felt well also; she wondered how long she'd been crying. She also noticed a warm spot on her shoulder, as well as whiskers ticking her nose. Happy. How numb had she been to not notice his presence?

"Why are you crying?"

They all stared shocked at the pink-haired boy in front of them. "Who made you cry?" he asked, "I'll make them pay for making you cry." His eyes flitted between the four mages, a look of concern and anger on his face, though it seemed unable to reach his eyes.

"Natsu!" Erza exclaimed, "Save your strength! Don't talk." She brushed his hair out of his face.

"But-"

"Listen to Erza flame-brain," Gray ordered, fresh tears falling. This was like Natsu. The idiot's about to... and he wants to beat up the person who made us sad.

The Dragon Slaye, of course didn't listen, and attempted to sit up, leaning heavily against Erza as he did so. He grimaced as he saw his wound. "So it did happen..." he muttered weakly.

"What do you mean 'It did happen'?"

"Wasn't sure. About the same level as it was before..."

"IDIOT!" it took all of Erza's willpower, and Lucy's strength, to keep the requip mage from hitting Natsu across the head, "Why didn't you tell us about this sooner?!"

"Didn't... seem... importan-" he slowly started to fall out of consciousness. This time the she-demon really _did_ hit him.

"Stay awake!"

He looked at hem tiredly, and smiled his signature smile, before raising an arm and patting each of them where he could reach. He patted Gray's head, from where it was bent over him, still trying to keep his ice from melting against the pinkette's intense body heat. A tear fell onto his stomach. He patted Lucy's shoulder and rubbed Happy's back, eliciting sobs from both of them. and finally laid his hand on Erza's knee. She looked angry. He then stuck out his Index and thumb before his arm fell to the ground and his eyes closed. Then his smile started to fade, leaving him in a semi-peaceful expression. It looked so _wrong_ on the fire mage, he never looked that peaceful, not even when he slept. But he wasn't going to wake up from this.

Lucy frantically searched his wrist for a pulse, finding silence. She laid her ear on his chest. Silence. Unmoving. De-. She wailed loudly as she clutched his hand like a lifeline, never wanting to let go. They all began sobbing, mourning the life of their guild, the person who always brought happiness and confidence with him.

After about ten minutes of hopelessness, Gray noticed something. The hand he had been gripping was starting to blur around the edges, he stared at it quizzically, and thought he was hallucinating until he heard Erza's scream. Natsu's still, peaceful face was beginning to fade around the edges. Looking down he saw that most of his legs had been erased. It was like what Mira described Lisanna's 'death', but different. Instead of taking him away, it seemed the universe was trying to erase their dastardly deed. Trying to erase their biggest mistake. Trying to erase Natsu's death.

They clung to him, much like what Mira had done to her sister, but they were clinging to the memory of their brother and best friend, unsuccessfully trying to keep him in this world. But the body they clung to soon was replaced with air, slowly erasing him from their arms.

In the end, all that was left was the blood, and his scarf.

The group sobbed as they, too, replicated the Fairy Tail symbol and cried until the sun rose. Never leaving their spots huddled around where their best friend had disappeared.

It truly was Fairy Tail's saddest day.


End file.
